Friday, September 20, 2019

Put the electronics into a coffee can

A US Navy ship used a new drone-defense system to take down an Iranian drone

A microwave burst is easily shielded, except the motor and exposed servos. The betting is still on the drone, servos are hard to burn out from a distance, it is heavy wire, not well wound to be energized by radiation.

No, the main weapon will be kinetic drones, drones engaging in air to air combat with a flying shotgun. The US Military is scrambling to get these now.

Here is a chuckler from the article:
A couple of years ago, a US ally used a $3 million Patriot missile to take down a $200 drone — an expensive proposition.

Nothing is getting jammed. The attack drones have a visible sensor, and that can be blinded, they are backed by inertial guidance done cheaply these days. And all that, plus flight computer, as in a coffee can.  Your directed energy weapon needs energy for each shot, a recharge time against a swarm of low cost drones.  The shot gun repeater gets right in the swarm, disrupts their pattern, like a destruction derby at the RC plane fair.

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